How two wires and cables manufacturers are trying to become household names

Last week, actor Paresh Rawal tweeted this: “Instead of tying stone pelter on the army jeep tie Arundhati Roy!” This, by any standard, wasn’t just a cheap shot, but rather insidious given the fact that Rawal is a Member of Parliament and from the ruling party. And, you know, a seemingly evolved homo sapien.

Typically, in situations where well-known individuals expose the world to new heights of idiocy or simply express an unpopular view, the brands these celebrities endorse often become collateral damage. One of the most prominent cases was that of Aamir Khan and Snapdeal. The brand was essentially pressured into dropping Khan as an ambassador after the Dangal maker’s statement was deemed “anti-national”. Though that wasn’t the official reason. It was just business, the company said. In the long run, it all worked out just fine, for Khan at least. He was recently spotted wrestling in China.

Rawal, while not as hot as Khan on the ad circuit, has a fair number of brands in his kitty. The list includes wires and cables manufacturer Polycab. Fortunately for Polycab, it seems nobody has bothered to demand an apology or all-out boycott after @SirPareshRawal’s tweet. Some did suggest the wires could double up as rope, though. But the reaction was muted, because, well, wires. Who cares, right?

That, for a while, has been the lot of brands in low-involvement categories. Few manage to break through with truly memorable advertising. Think Fevicol, Asian Paints or Havells, which never fails to make flipping a switch at least a bit entertaining. In 2015, Ambuja Cement gave us a commercial that was considered among the funniest that year starring The Great Khali.

Now, wire makers want their spot in the light after providing us safe ways to light our homes. When RR Kabel needed to establish its global credentials it launched the #AkalmandThing campaign. Says director Kirti Kabra, “We were focusing on B2B as well as the consumer market. Now we’ve put more emphasis on the latter as the market has matured and become more organised.”

Over at Sony Pictures Network, vice-president and business head, Neeraj Vyas tells us cables manufacturers are one of the biggest category advertisers in the Indian Premier League. A shift that’s happened over the past couple of years.

Polycab released 11 commercials during the 10th edition of the IPL. The strategy provided some differentiation in a category that’s generally about bijli bachao, bachat pao. Only the creative device differs. Havells, for instance, often uses humour. Polycab’s recent campaign, on the other hand, just has Rawal advising people anxious about their whopper bills to switch to Polycab.

Says Sangeetha N, president (W) and national creative director of ad agency RK SwamyBBDO, “We created 11 original TVCs, each in a different language – Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Assamese, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. For the first time in the country, these language versions ran on national TV during the IPL.” Polycab needed a national platform and the IPL was a natural choice. The brand, to borrow from internet slang, “broke the IPL” through the use of 11 languages. “Every language in India is large – Malayalam is spoken by over 30 million people, which is more than the population of many European countries. The scheduling of the languages was also strategic – each language received exposure whenever the teams from that region played,” she tells us, “The cut-through was dramatic.” It’s a strategy that was name checked by Pepsi’s Vipul Prakash in a recent interaction with Brand Equity, while talking about his plans to go national with the local patois seen on the new Pepsi cans.

For hardware brands, establishing an emotional connect is tough. How do you feel as strongly about wires as you do about what you eat, drink or wear? For both, Polycab and RR Kabel the answer lies in simple truths. The strength of connection arises from the core proposition. For Kabra’s RR Kable, its safety; “Quality is the strength of a brand. It’s easy to create a connection. We just have to be honest about the product.” But Indians want safety and bachat. Says Sangeetha N, “India is frugal. And so Polycab’s connection to a core desire to save is strong. Suddenly, wires are not so low-interest anymore.”

And who knows! Maybe the next time @SirPareshRawal makes a potentially nasty tweet, somebody, somewhere may demand Polycab be held responsible.If they agree with him, they just may rewire the entire home. Achievement unlocked.